SIDE EFFECTS (15) This film is allegedly the last film that Oscar winning director Stephen Sodbergh is doing before retiring at the age of 50. He has directed 26 films in 24 years, and that seems to be enough for him. He is one of the most versatile directors around, which is why his work ranges from the low budget: sex, lies and videotape, to the Oscar winning dramas of Erin Brockovich and Traffic with the Ocean's Eleven Trilogy showing he could make commercial films along with the best of them. Apart from a TV film about the life of Liberace, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, his swansong is a Hitchcockian thriller, Side Effects.

Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) is a psychiatrist who treats a young lady Emily (Rooney Mara), who is suffering from depression. Her husband (Channing Tatum) has been released from prison, after serving four years for insider trading, and she is struggling to cope. After a number of drugs fail, they seem to have found the answer in a new drug called Ablixa. However the side effects cause Emily to sleep walk, and one evening she kills her husband while in one of these states. While Jonathan tries to help acquit Emily by acting for the defence and being her consulting psychiatrist, his life starts to fall apart as he is blamed for giving her the drugs in the first place. However matters take a different turn, when he starts to doubt Emily's initial story. The question remains if it his own paranoia or there is a more sinister twist to this tale.

Side Effects is an unnerving and intriguing thriller. It's very well written and put together. Without giving too much away, it starts as one film and develops into another one - and is all the more effective for it. Law is an excellent lead, conveying the good man caught up in something he has no control over, Mara is equally compelling as Emily, and Catherine Zeta Jones gives a strong turn as Emily's former shrink. If this is to be Sodbergh's last film it is a shame, as his work will be missed. He has rarely put a foot wrong in his career and proven he can turn his hand to any style of film. Here's hoping he puts off his retirement for a few more years.

8/10 Andrew Shepherd